This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art, which may be associated with embodiments of the present invention. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with information to facilitate a better understanding of particular techniques of the present invention. Accordingly, these statements are to be read in this light, and not necessarily as admissions of prior art.
Water, energy and industrial activity have a symbiotic relationship. Energy is needed to move water to people, businesses and industry to operate. Conversely, water, is necessary to produce energy and run business and industry.
A significant factor that determines the ultimate volume of water a power plant and some industrial plant needs is the cooling system. Most conventional power plants use either a “once-through” system or a cooling “tower.” A once-through system pulls water from a body of water such as, an aquifer, a river or a lake. The system cycles the water through the power plant to help generate electricity and then discharges it back into the environment. A tower recirculates the water instead of discharging it, but a tower uses significantly more water because the water ends up being lost through evaporation, whereas the once-through system returns the water to the river or lake.
Steam from water or vapor from fluids is used for many purposes including heating, cooling and to power many devices including steam turbines to produce electricity. One problem with using fluids is that impurities in the fluids, usually salt in water, causes corrosion, scaling and other issues. This corrosion often requires the use of very expensive material that is highly corrosion resistant. In addition, excessive corrosion requires costly replacement of parts and additional labor charges increasing the cost of utilizing steam. Contaminates in fluids will raise the boiling temperature of the fluids which requires more energy to produce the steam, decreasing the efficiency of steam production and increasing costs. One solution is to use fresh water with low amounts of contaminates. The problem with fresh water is that fresh water is needed for agricultural and human consumption. In certain locations, there is not enough fresh water to satisfy human and agricultural consumption which can make the use of fresh water for steam generation problematic and expensive. The problem with removing contaminates from fluids is the equipment and processes required are very expensive because of the extensive amount of equipment needed and the amount of energy required to utilize the equipment. Accordingly, there is a need for apparatuses and methods to efficiently and cost effectively remove contaminates from liquids during steam generation.
Another issue with using water with impurities is scaling. Scaling is when contaminates such as salt precipitates out of a fluid and attaches to equipment. Too much scaling can cause a plant or equipment to fail. Scaling becomes more prevalent as temperature increases and contaminates increase. For this reason, many plants that require water do not use alternatives to fresh water such as, salt water as any significant increase in heat or salinity causes scaling issues.
Increased population growth and increased industrialization is causing certain geographic regions to exhaust renewable fresh water. To solve this problem methods and devices have been created to purify contaminated water to create fresh water for industrial, agricultural and human consumption. Currently, the most effective process utilizes reverse osmosis and membrane technology to remove contaminates and creates purified fresh water. The amount of equipment and energy required makes this technology costly to build and to operate. The idea of using steam generation to produce purified water is not novel. There are devices that can use directed energy to remove purified steam from contaminated fluids such as, water. Others have proposed combining steam generation for power and other uses to purify water. The problem has been the additional costs for additional equipment and the loss of efficiency has made these processes uneconomical. Accordingly, there is a need to maximize the efficiency of existing technology to efficiently and economically remove contaminates from contaminated water. This invention satisfies that need.